** CORRECTS NAME FROM JAMIE TO JAIME ** FILE **These photos released by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department show Jaime Plascencia, left, and his wife Anna Ayala, right. On Friday, May 13, 2005, San Jose police announced that the finger that Ayala claimed she found in a bowl of Wendy's chili came from an acquaintance of her husband who lost it in an industrial accident in December. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Police Department, File) CORRECTS NAME FROM JAMIE TO JAIME. PHOTOS RELEASED BY THE LAS VEGAS METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT Ran on: 05-14-2005
James Plascencia Ran on: 05-14-2005
James Plascencia Ran on: 05-14-2005
James Plascencia Nation#MainNews#Chronicle#5/14/2005#ALL#5star##0422907102 less

** CORRECTS NAME FROM JAMIE TO JAIME ** FILE **These photos released by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department show Jaime Plascencia, left, and his wife Anna Ayala, right. On Friday, May 13, 2005, San Jose ... more

Image
1of/5

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 5

** CORRECTS NAME FROM JAMIE TO JAIME ** FILE **These photos released by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department show Jaime Plascencia, left, and his wife Anna Ayala, right. On Friday, May 13, 2005, San Jose police announced that the finger that Ayala claimed she found in a bowl of Wendy's chili came from an acquaintance of her husband who lost it in an industrial accident in December. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Police Department, File) CORRECTS NAME FROM JAMIE TO JAIME. PHOTOS RELEASED BY THE LAS VEGAS METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT Ran on: 05-14-2005
James Plascencia Ran on: 05-14-2005
James Plascencia Ran on: 05-14-2005
James Plascencia Nation#MainNews#Chronicle#5/14/2005#ALL#5star##0422907102 less

** CORRECTS NAME FROM JAMIE TO JAIME ** FILE **These photos released by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department show Jaime Plascencia, left, and his wife Anna Ayala, right. On Friday, May 13, 2005, San Jose ... more

2005-05-18 04:00:00 PDT Las Vegas -- The Las Vegas man whose severed fingertip ended up in a cup of Wendy's chili gave his mangled digit to a co-worker to settle a $50 debt -- but had no idea it would be used in an alleged scheme to swindle the fast-food chain, the man's mother said Tuesday.

San Jose police have refused to name the man whose finger they believe ended up in the chili. But the man's mother, reached by The Chronicle on Tuesday, said the finger belonged to her 36-year-old son, Brian Paul Rossiter of Las Vegas.

"My son is the victim in this," Rossiter's mother, Brenda Shouey, said in a telephone interview from her Pennsylvania home. "I believe he got caught in something, and he didn't understand what was going on."

Rossiter lost part of his finger when his gloved hand was caught in a mechanical truck lift in December at a Las Vegas paving firm where he worked with James Plascencia, the husband of Anna Ayala, the woman accused of planting the fingertip in her cup of Wendy's chili.

Ayala claims she bit into a 1 1/2-inch human fingertip on March 22 while eating chili at the fast-food restaurant in San Jose. She was arrested a month later on felony charges of attempted grand theft for allegedly trying to shake down Wendy's International Inc. for a financial settlement in a scheme police say caused the fast-food chain to lose more than $2.5 million in sales. Her husband was arrested this month on unrelated charges of failing to pay child support in a previous relationship.

San Jose police announced last week that they had scientifically confirmed that the finger Ayala claimed to have chomped into was obtained from an associate of Plascencia, but they have refused to identify him because he is cooperating in the investigation.

Shouey said her son was desperate for cash when he gave his finger away.

"He had a money problem. He owed $50 to this character, James," Shouey said.

The mother accused Plascencia of preying upon her injured son, who she said was strapped for money because he was unable to work after the accident and his disability checks were lost in the mail when he moved. She said Rossiter was laid up for weeks after reconstructive surgery on his mangled hand.

While the finger-chili caper has made headlines even in her rural West Pennsylvania town, Shouey said she learned of her son's involvement only Monday night when he alarmed her by calling to say: "Mom, do you know what's happened?"

"The last time he said something like that to me was 9/11," Shouey said.

Rossiter hadn't even told his father, James Rossiter, who lives in Florida and is divorced.

"Oh, my God!" the father said when contacted by The Chronicle, saying he never imagined that his son's severed digit was the Wendy's finger.

He said he knew his son had suffered a finger injury but had not been in touch with him in the months after the accident.

"That is pretty wild," he added.

The man's mother declined to give details of how the finger was preserved, the nature of her son's debt, or whether Rossiter was told why Plascencia allegedly wanted the finger. She said her son is keeping a low profile after undergoing intense police questioning in the case.

"My son is a happy-go-lucky guy. He thought it was cute to show" the severed finger, Shouey said. "It's like a man thing. If a woman had her finger severed, she would never show it to anyone. But he would show it to the girls in the office if they asked."

While Ayala and Plascencia have been arrested, Shouey said her son appears to have convinced police that he had nothing to do with the alleged finger hoax.

"He originally thought that he was going to be in big trouble," Shouey said. But after taking lie-detector tests and being quizzed by investigators for four hours at a stretch, "it appears from what he's interpreted that the police believe him," the mother added.

Ayala, 39, was arrested April 21 at her Las Vegas home on suspicion of attempted grand theft for allegedly costing Wendy's millions of dollars in a plot to shake down the company with a tainted-food claim. She remains in jail in Santa Clara County and has a court hearing today at which her attorney is expected to seek reduction of her $500,000 bail.

Wendy officials have said bad publicity over her claim cost the chain millions in lost sales.

Plascencia, 43, was arrested May 4 at his Lamb Asphalt Maintenance job site, the same day investigators got a tip about a man who might have lost a finger in an industrial accident. The tip was received on a hot line run by Wendy's, which had offered a $100,000 reward for information on how the finger got in its chili.

Lamb's president, Mike Casey, has said he called the tip in that day after he put together the arrest of Ayala's husband at the firm and the fellow employee who lost his finger there three months earlier.

Office supervisors at the Lamb paving firm chuckled at the media attention on Tuesday, each raising both hands to show all 10 digits to reporters.

Plascencia is awaiting extradition to California from Las Vegas, where he is jailed on felony charges of failing to pay child support and of committing identity theft by assuming the name and Social Security number of his young son, allegedly to avoid having his wages garnisheed for child support in a previous relationship.

Police have said Plascencia is likely to face charges in the Wendy's case and will not rule out further arrests.

Without identifying Rossiter, San Jose police spokesman Enrique Garcia reaffirmed Tuesday that the man who lost the finger "is being cooperative with us and assisting us in the investigation."

However, Garcia said, once police turn in their reports to the Santa Clara County district attorney, it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether to charge anyone else.

At the Las Vegas trailer park where Rossiter lived until February, residents who knew he'd lost the finger were surprised to learn it had wound up in the bizarre chili saga.

"I know he smashed his hand in one of the construction vehicles," Dan Gelzaines said. "He showed it to me. It looked like this," Gelzaines said, lifting his hand to show an index finger missing its tip from his own carpentry accident.

While at first saying it was really strange to learn his old neighbor's lost finger is that finger, Gelzaines added: "But nothing really surprises me anymore."

Gelzaines said he thinks Ayala's husband should be held accountable if he did indeed use Rossiter's finger in an attempted scam.

Rossiter left the Kensington Community trailer park, which is across the street from Nellis Air Force Base, after the friend he was living with was evicted for having vicious dogs that mauled a neighbor's pooch.

"I've been listening to this story on the news. I'm surprised someone would go to that extreme to get money," said trailer park manager Terri Richey, who also hadn't heard of Rossiter's link to the Wendy's tale. "But people are funny. They'll do anything. This is Vegas, after all."